Biba 2024: Blueprint Two ‘doesn’t seem to be going very well in delivery terms’

Lloyd’s of London’s Blueprint Two digitisation initiative “doesn’t seem to be going very well in delivery terms”, according to Matt Lane, chief executive of Davies Insurance Services.

Blueprint Two, originally unveiled in November 2020, is a road map for modernising business models, practices and systems within Lloyd’s. This includes shifting from paper-based processes to a digital, data-led and automated approach.

Phase one of the project is focused on building the capabilities required to process premiums digitally, as well as deliver faster claim payments. Phase two, meanwhile, will see the launch of a Core Data Record (CDR) and introduce increased automation.

This activity forms part of the market’s Future at Lloyd’s digital transformation initiative, which launched in 2019.

The official introduction of Blueprint Two’s measures, however, has been delayed.

In June 2023, Lloyd’s estimated that phase one of Blueprint Two would launch in June 2024 – this was subsequently pushed back to July 2024 before being delayed further to October 2024.

In a market update held last month (April 2024), Lloyd’s of London chief executive John Neal said that phase one will be implemented when there is confidence that the technology works.

“By moving the crossover period, we will provide the market participants an additional three months to undertake their own internal testing and assurance activities ahead of any cutover,” he added.

‘Worried’ about delivery

Although Lane is an advocate of the digital transformation that Blueprint Two seeks to implement, he is also “very cynical” and “worried” about the plan’s delivery.

Speaking to Insurance Times at the Biba Conference 2024, he said: “We need Blueprint Two, I’m very supportive of Blueprint Two – I just worry that we won’t get it in any reasonable timeframes or [we will] get it at such an exorbitant cost.

“It doesn’t seem to be going very well in delivery terms and I’m very cynical and worried about it.

“The market is running on a technology stack that’s antiquated – no one knows how it works anymore.”

He explained that technology “workarounds” currently being used “were exorbitantly inefficient in terms of time and materials”.

For Lane, Blueprint Two is “not cost effective” because “Blueprint Two started in 2019 and five years later, I suspect, all the money that John Neal borrowed has been spent and we still haven’t seen anything.”

Lane’s colleague and Davies Insurance Solutions’ director and head of MGA incubations, Emma Plush, emphasised that Blueprint Two has “to be cost effective for the market”, with clear, achievable timeframes.